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The Ultimate Guide to Human Resources Strategy

1. HR Assessments

HR assessments are a great place to start if you’re looking to take your HR strategy to the next level. During an HR assessment, your human resources practices, policies, and processes are reviewed. This gives you a picture of what’s working, what’s not, and what the highest priorities are.

2. Employee Handbooks 

Your employee handbook is an opportunity to align expectations, improve communication, and minimize risk and misunderstandings. To make sure employees actually read your handbook, it’s important that it’s not only comprehensive and legally compliant but also engaging and fun to read. You should review your employee handbook at least annually to make sure it’s still accurate and takes into account new laws and regulations.

3. Understanding Employment Law

Understanding the nuances of employment law is a necessity for building a strong HR strategy. Complying with all employment laws that apply to your organization can keep you from being hit with costly fines. While we at Purple Ink are experienced in ensuring organizations are compliant with employment laws, we are not lawyers! We recommend consulting your employment law attorney, too.

4. Using HR Metrics

Collecting HR data can help you make more informed decisions about your human resources functions. Start by learning what information is important to your leadership team and what data can help you measure progress toward your organization’s goals. This will help you understand what metrics you should be using. Don’t spend time collecting data on things you’re not going to change!

5. Strategic Planning and Budgeting

Strategic planning goes beyond financial goals and operational metrics. People, culture, and engagement should also be factors in an organization’s strategic plan. A well-constructed strategic plan and a detailed HR budget sets your team up for success.

6. Compensation Strategy

Does your organization have a compensation philosophy? If not, you should! Developing a successful plan requires understanding where compensation fits within your organization’s strategy, identifying market data and insights, and tying in internal communication tactics.

7. Employee Relations

Organizations with strong employee relations functions have higher employee morale and engagement, increased productivity, better retention, less absenteeism, lower turnover costs, more positive company cultures, and better employer brands. Employee relations professionals strategically obtain employee feedback, implement policies, address concerns, and address conflict.

8. Performance Management

One annual performance review doesn’t cut it anymore. Organizations are moving toward cultures of frequent feedback. Your performance management cycle might start with setting goals, then move into a monitoring stage with regular check-ins on the employee’s progress, followed by more formal evaluations, and finally rating and rewarding.

9. Employee Engagement

Organizations with engaged employees see benefits like increased productivity, higher profitability, and reduced absenteeism and turnover. Consider conducting employee engagement surveys to find out how your people are feeling and what you can do to improve engagement on your team.

10. Employee Retention

Hiring the right talent for your organization is just step one. If your organization wants to retain your best people, you need to actively work to keep them! Retaining employees costs far less than recruiting new talent, but it requires intentional effort.

11. Workplace Flexibility

Today’s workers are looking for more flexibility from their employers. Flexibility isn’t one-size-fits-all; if remote work isn’t an option for your organization, think about what you can do. Maybe you can offer other options, like flexible start and end times or ability to take paid time off (PTO) by the hour instead of the day.

12. Creating an Inclusive Culture

We all want a culture we can connect with, where we feel like we’re included and treated fairly. Studies also prove that teams function better, solve more problems, and are more creative when we include and involve people with different backgrounds and perspectives.

13. Internal Investigations 

Investigations are one of the most complex and delicate parts of human resources. Not every workplace conflict requires one, but ignoring problems or delaying too long can create significant risks. A strong investigation process is built on five pillars: consistency, discretion, timeliness, fairness, and neutrality.

14. Time Off

From vacation time to paw-ternity leave, organizations are offering a wide variety of time off options. Find out what’s important to your employees to determine what kind of time off you should offer, or consider moving to a paid time off “bucket” model where employees are given one batch of PTO to use for whatever they need.

15. Employee Well-Being

Supporting your employees’ well-being can increase productivity and engagement, decrease absenteeism, and help you attract and retain top talent. Office gyms and healthy snacks in the breakroom aren’t enough; take a holistic view of well-being with programs that address physical, mental, financial, and social well-being.

16. Artificial Intelligence in Human Resources

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the way we do business, and HR is no exception! It can make HR more efficient, but bias, glitches, and privacy risks can undo those gains. Make sure you’re addressing potential risks and that your AI strategy builds trust instead of breaking it.

17. HR Consulting and Outsourcing

If all of this sounds a bit overwhelming, don’t worry—help is available! HR consulting and outsourcing can help you achieve your human resources goals when you have too much on your plate, are missing some expertise that you need, or simply want an outside perspective.

Do you need help with your human resource initiatives? Reach out to Purple Ink!